Teachers groups latest to protest in El Paso against separation of immigrant families

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a video of a June 21, 2018, tour of the tent city for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas.
Courtesy HHS

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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the separation of families a moral outrage and an abomination during a protest Tuesday outside the El Paso County Courthouse. The group later traveled to the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry in Tornillo. At left is Ross Moore, president of the El Paso Federation of Teachers.(Photo11: RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

The teachers and their supporters gathered outside the El Paso County Courthouse to demand an end to the separation and detainment of families. They later went by school bus to the Tornillo port of entry, where immigrant children are being held in tent shelters.

There have been more than a half-dozen marches, demonstrations and visits by political leaders, activists and regular people from around the nation.

Similar demonstrations have taken place in cities across the U.S.

El Paso immigrant advocates had mobilized against the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies even before the opening of the tent city in Tornillo two weeks ago.

More protests are scheduled this week with hundreds of immigrant youth "freedom warriors" planning to rally at 11 a.m. Wednesday near the tent city for immigrant children at Tornillo's Marcelino Serna Port of Entry.

Teachers protest

In the latest protest, more than 200 teachers, clergy and civil rights activists from El Paso and across the U.S. and even members of the teachers union in Mexico demonstrated under a punishing sun outside the El Paso County Courthouse.

Demonstrators condemned the detention of undocumented immigrant children and families, including people seeking political asylum.

The practice is "immoral" and "an abomination," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, talks to a group of teachers union members, clergy and others gathered outside the gates of the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry on Tuesday. The group, which included representatives of LULAC, Voto Latino and Move On, took school supplies to the port in hopes of giving them to the undocumented immigrant children being housed there. RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES

Lilly Ruiz, an organizer with the Socorro American Federation of Teachers, places a small placard next to boxes of school supplies outside the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry in Tornillo on Tuesday. RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES

Members of a various faiths gathered with the American Federation of Teachers, Voto Latino, Move On and other groups during a protest rally in front of the El Paso County Courthouse before going to the Marcelino Port of Entry in Tornillo on Tuesday. RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the separation of families a moral outrage and an abomination during a protest Tuesday outside the El Paso County Courthouse. The group later traveled to the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry in Tornillo. At left is Ross Moore, president of the El Paso Federation of Teachers. RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES

Randi Weingarten, left, and Dolores Huerta, second from left, were among the speakers at a protest against the separation of immigrant families outside the El Paso County Courthouse on Tuesday. RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES

Members of a various faiths gathered with the American Federation of Teachers, Voto Latino, Move On and other groups during a protest rally in front of the El Paso County Courthouse before going to the Marcelino Port of Entry in Tornillo on Tuesday.(Photo11: RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES)

The demonstrators said they were denied permission to gather on the lawn in front of the U.S. federal courthouse on the next block.

After the rally in Downtown, protesters boarded yellow El Paso Independent School District buses that took them to the Tornillo port of entry.

The use of the buses was donated by the EPISD to help deliver educational supplies to the tent city, a district spokesman said.

"It seems the border divides us, but the reality is our vocation unites us," said Juan Diaz de la Torre, president of Mexico’s 1.6 million-member National Education Workers Syndicate.

Holding children in detainment hurts their development, Diaz de la Torre said in Spanish, explaining that education and migration are global issues.

Longtime social justice activist Dolores Huerta speaks at a protest over the separation of immigrant families outside the El Paso County Courthouse on Tuesday.(Photo11: RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES)

The protest included David Edwards, general secretary of Education International, a teacher federation in 132 nations; civil rights leader Dolores Huerta; the League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC; and other groups.

The gathering also included Christian, Muslim and Jewish clergy. One person held a sign stating, "Resisting tyrants since Pharaoh."

Other protests in the El Paso area include:

Celebrities join protests

Movie director and actor Rob Reiner and actors Amber Heard and Mira Sorvino were among more than a dozen Hollywood actors, civil rights and political leaders who joined hundreds at a rally Sunday at the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry.

Senators visit El Paso

U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, both Democrats from New Mexico, on Friday visited the Tornillo port of entry, a Border Patrol station in Northeast El Paso and the Paso Del Norte international bridge.

Mayors visit

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti were part of a bipartisan group of about 20 mayors who visited the Tornillo port of entry Thursday, calling for immigration reform.

Superintendents speak out

El Paso County school district superintendents gathered June 20 outside the Tornillo tent city to decry the detention of undocumented immigrant children separated from their parents.

March to Tornillo

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, helped lead the Father's Day "March to Tornillo" on June 17 with estimates of 1,000 participants, including U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass.

Hurd visits tent city

U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, whose district includes the port of entry in Tornillo, was the first elected official to visit the tent city on June 15.

Evening of Action

About 100 El Paso activists, residents and elected leaders gathered to urge the release and reunification of immigrant families at an "Evening of Action" rally May 31 outside the El Paso County Courthouse.